News Around Disneyland

Walt Disney Imagineer Lisa Girolami is the senior show producer for The
Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure, a new attraction
opening June 3 at Disney California Adventure park. Lisa oversees a
talented team that worked on the attraction, including the creative
group responsible for the development and guest experience. Lisa shared
her thoughts about the attraction and her experience getting it ready
for guests.

Tell Us About This Attraction
"The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure
is a classic Disney 'dark ride' that takes you
through classic scenes from the movie. It's a wonderful
ride-through experience of the film with everyone's favorite
animated characters and music.
"This will be the first time that guests will actually be
able to go under the sea with Ariel and her friends.
"'Dark rides' are the hallmark of the
Disney experience all around the world. It's a great way to
immerse our guests in an environment and tell a story. I believe going
under the sea with Ariel will be one of the best."

Tell Us about the Guest Experience
"One of the great things guests are going to experience is
the actual sensation of going under the water. Guests will start out on
the shore with Scuttle but then quickly turn, go backwards and submerge.
We've got some great effects that are going to make you feel
like you're going underwater. One of the effects is actually
on the ride vehicle in front of you. As you start to feel yourself go
under, you'll see the waterline rise up on the vehicle in
front of you. I know, you're going to hold your breath in
that moment. You're going to feel the cold around you,
you're going to see bubbles starting to swirl, and
you're going to feel that submersion."

Tell us about the music
"The music in The Little Mermaid is fantastic. The songs you
hear are the original songs from the film. But we also had Danny Troob,
who has been Alan Menken's arranger, write additional music
for us that plays in between each of these scenes. That music is
wonderful, and it's evocative of all the different songs we
have in the film." (Alan Menken composed the film score.
Danny Troob, who has collaborated with Menken on many theatrical scores,
arranged and orchestrated special music for the Little Mermaid
attraction.)

Do you have a favorite scene in the attraction?
"My favorite scene is Ursula's lair.
That's the first time, in this attraction, that we actually
go into black light - from white light into black light. The
mood changes and you see Flotsam and Jetsam and you know Ursula is
around the corner singing that wonderful song "Poor
Unfortunate Souls." She's amazing.
She's 7-1/2 feet tall and 12 feet wide and
you're right up close to her and it's my absolute
favorite."

Why build the attraction in Disney California Adventure park?
"We decided to put The Little Mermaid here in Disney
California Adventure for a couple of reasons. We picked Disney
California Adventure because we are bringing more and more of the Disney
characters into this park and she seemed like a perfect fit. The second
reason is that, here in Paradise Pier, we've created a
seaside amusement park. So it felt right to have this under the sea
adventure in this seaside environment."

Why now for The Little Mermaid?
"We've been working a long time to bring this
story to life. It's been more than 20 years since the film
was released. And it just seemed perfect at this time because the
technology we need to create and tell this story has caught up with
us."

What are some challenges you faced with this attraction?
"The number-one challenge is creating an undersea
environment. For instance, when Ariel is under the sea, her hair has to
animate like she's under the sea. We actually tried to think
of Ariel's hair as an additional character. When she moves
in the film, her hair reacts after she does. We actually had to do a
lot of extra work there to make guests feel like 'Yes,
we're underwater and we're with Ariel,'
and have the hair take on its own personality."
"Of course the star of 'The Little
Mermaid' is Ariel, and we wanted to make sure she was as
perfect in this attraction as she is in the film. For example, her skin
has to be beautiful, without wrinkles. We can't have any
funny little things...she has to look amazing. You look at
characters like those in Pirates of the Caribbean and they're
kind of scarred up, rough and tumble. But this little gal has to be
beautiful, so there was an extra challenge to get her just
perfect."
"Another challenge is making characters that are tiny
- like Sebastian - come alive. The components we
have to work with are rather large so we had to work with the research
and development team to figure out how to make tiny little characters
come to life."

Is there a surprise you'd like to share?
"Look for the Hidden Mickeys. I challenge our guests to see
if they can find them all!"

What's it like to lead this kind of project?
"Being involved in this attraction is a dream come true for
me. I watched the movie when it
first came out. I've seen the movie many, many, many times
since. To be able to create Ariel's world and bring it to
our guests and then get to watch the faces of the kids as they come
through here is just going to be the best thing ever.
"To be in this environment, with what I think are some of the
best songs we've ever written, it's the best job
in the world."

What was the process for bringing this attraction to life?
"We start in a phase called 'blue sky,'
where the sky is really the limit, and we think about all the things we
can do to bring this movie to life. We go through a concept phase and
start to do design drawings before we can bring together people who will
help us build all the different pieces. As we produce the pieces, we
bring everything together in the facility that will house the
attraction. From there we start to put the whole experience together
for the guests."